Old enough to be cranky. Young enough to enjoy it.

The Scourge of the Red Rash

On Tuesday I had a red rash on my left leg which got ultrasounded (is that even a word?) to make sure it wasn’t a blood clot — which it wasn’t. On Wednesday, the rash looked like it was going away. But on Thursday it was back with a vengeance and even looked like it was starting on my other leg. So I went to the doctor. He thinks it’s an allergic reaction to something, but because it started before my Tuesday chemo, he says it’s not an allergic reaction to the chemo — which would be a real bummer. In my opinion, the chemo has a hand in it though, because it’s the chemo’s action of screwing with my immune system that’s made me susceptible to an allergy that under normal circumstances would not bother me. So I’ve got a course of prednisone to go through, and I’ve added Claritin to my daily pills. It seems to be helping because the red patch is getting smaller. It feels like my legs have been sunburned on the inside of my skin — you know, that nagging, uncomfortable burning you get when you allow the sun to cook your skin? And the red rash looks a little like a sunburn might look. But it doesn’t cover my entire leg (as the “sunburn pain” does), only a small patch on my ear shin.

This is the second allergic rash I’ve had. During my last cycle, I had some red splotches on my hips. Didn’t know what triggered them, either.

Tomorrow our favorite speciality super market, Dorothy Lane, is having a sale on lobster — and we had already decided we were going to participate. Personally, I think lobster is too much trouble — what with cracking the shell and pulling the meat out and the fishy smell and the mess — but my mom loves it. It’s part of our heritage (which is another story). So, fingers crossed that I won’t have an allergic reaction to shell fish. By this time tomorrow I could be looking like I was the one boiled. Instead of the lobster.